Itachi Uchiha is probably one of the most famous characters in all of Naruto. His actions both in the shadow and in the forefront of Naruto helped shape the direction of the entire Village of the Hidden Leaf (Leaf Village). And frankly, Itachi was a central catalyst in the development of Sasuke Uchiha and his innate Uchiha abilities. So then, who is Itachi to the Hidden Leaf?
Who is Itachi Uchiha and what did he do?
Itachi Uchiha is a member of Uchiha Clan which falls under the umbrella of the Leaf Village and is the older brother of Sasuke Uchiha. This is one of the Five Great Nations within the Naruto universe and plays key roles in the great ninja wars. Itachi is considered a child prodigy and from a young age shows mastery of special Uchiha jutsus that sets milestones that Sasuke Uchiha seeks to break. Because of his abilities, Itachi is recruited into the ANBU Black Ops, a clandestine arm of the Leaf Village, and performs classified missions.
Itachi Uchiha gains his initial infamy for his actions against his own clan. When Itachi was 13 he killed almost every member of the Uchiha Clan including his own parents. Itachi only spared his brother from the massacre and it seemed for awhile that Itachi committed these actions solely to force Sasuke to advance his capabilities through hate. But this isn’t really true.
The massacre was done to prevent internal harm to the Leaf Village. Itachi, when he was a member of the ANBU Black Ops, learned that his clan was planning a coup d’état of the current leadership of the Leaf Village. Why? Because his clan was accused of working with the Nine-Tailed Fox, one of the legendary tailed beasts that wreak untold havoc, during its attack on the village. Having had his youth marred by conflict, Itachi sought to end the cycle of violence by eliminating it before it manifested. After providing intelligence on his clan to Leaf Village leadership, Itachi received the order to commit the massacre from his ANBU Black Ops Commander. The result from this order is that he publicly became a wanted fugitive but privately remained a valuable asset for the Leaf Village. Despite his utility, Itachi must be seen for what he is…a war criminal.
What is genocide?
Itachi committed genocide for what he perceived was the “greater good.” He was wrong.
Genocide is not a term that is loosely thrown around. It carries a heavy weight. When uttered, genocide ushers images and horrors ranging from Nazi Germany to the cleansing of the Tutsis by the Hutus in Rwanda in the 1990s. It encompasses the worst of humanity and rightfully deserves to be criminalized by all. We know what the term tends to invoke but legally how do we approach and classify actions as genocide?
Genocide falls under the umbrella of crimes against humanity in international law and finds its origins in the Nuremburg Trials at the conclusion of World War II. In 1951, the United Nations (UN) ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Treaty) thus making it punishable by all states under international law. Under Article 1 of the Genocide Treaty, the crime of genocide has the potential to take place within armed conflict, international/non-international armed conflict, and also within peaceful situations. This is intentionally expansive to ensure that genocide does not go unpunished.
Next, Article 2 of the Genocide Convention establishes that “genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
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- Killing members of the group;
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Combining the information above, Article 2 tells us that for genocide to be proved we need to satisfy two elements: one mental and one physical. For the mental element, we need to see if the party committing the action had the intent to cause the stated harm. For the physical element, we have the listed actions from subsection A to E that a party must have committed. If we only satisfy one element, then genocide is not established.
Itachi’s “noble” intentions
Now, that we have both the facts surrounding Itachi’s actions and the law outlined for what genocide is we can approach and see if his actions rise to that level.
The Mental State
As noted above, we have to first consider the mental state of the person committing the actions. We have to see if they had the intent to cause destruction to the target racial, ethnic, racial or religious group either partially or totally.
Itachi Uchiha acted with the requisite intent required by the convention. He was given orders by ANBU Black Ops of the Hidden Leaf to attack his clan, the Uchiha clan, which is a smaller subset of the population. Notably, the Uchiha clan is distinct from the other clans within the Hidden Leaf based on its cultural, jutsu, and bloodline differences.
So, when Itachi attacked his clan he had the knowledge that his mission was to completely eradicate the Uchiha Clan. He also knew that the Uchiha clan was distinct and a subset of the Hidden Leaf. With this knowledge, we can see that the first element is satisfied.
The Physical Action
For the second element, we need to see whether the actor committed any of the harmful actions that are laid in subsections A through E.
Itachi’s attack on his clan satisfies multiple subsections of Article 2 of the Genocide Convention. Notably, subection A is satisfied as Itachi literally killed his entire clan sans his younger brother – Sasuke Uchiha. Subsection C is then satisfied because Itachi deliberately took these actions to eliminate the active threat that was perceived to exist to the Leaf Village.
With the satisfaction of the physical action, Itachi Uchiha’s actions have passed the requisite thresholds and confirms that genocide had been committed against the Uchiha Clan.
Should Itachi Uchiha be punished?
Itachi Uchiha without a doubt should be punished for the genocide that he committed against his own clan. Although a coup d’état was perceived to be in preparation against the Leaf Village’s current leadership, many members of the Uchiha clan should have been protected and only combatants targeted. Itachi deliberately killed everyone without any discretion to whether they were combatants or civilians. The safety of the village was/is paramount to Itachi, as he continues to try and be its ward from the shadows via the Akutsuki, but his actions of genocide cannot be defended under the auspices of “protection.” Despite how he perceived his actions to be for the “greater good of the village” he is still a war criminal and must be held accountable as one.
